Thursday, February 28, 2013

Pat Robertson: Still Preaching Idiocy

Robertson

For
more than 30 years, Republicans have been kowtowing to Marion Gordon “Pat”
Robertson, the host of the ultraconservative religious show called The 700
Club.He’s a former Southern Baptist
minister who also serves as Chancellor of Regent University, which he
founded, and chairman of the Christian Broadcasting Network.Son of a U.S. Senator, he is also credited
with creating the ABC Family Channel, the American Center for Law & Justice,
and the Christian Coalition.

The
Kentucky native who graduated from Yale Law School was once a credible,
although ultimately unsuccessful, presidential candidate.He has power, authority and millions of
followers.For decades, he has been the
voice and face of conservative Christians.

He
also must have a taste for shoe leather given how often he sticks his foot in
his mouth.

About 4.5 billion years old

Not
that long ago, he ran afoul of the religious fanatics in his audience by
conceding that science has proved that the Earth is really billions of years
old and not the few thousand they fervently believe.That seemingly simply agreement with hard
data created a strange situation for him:it essentially undercut claims of Bible accuracy, the bedrock of his
beliefs and those of his followers.

Now,
he’s taking on another fundamental Christian belief after receiving the following
question from a viewer of his show.Even
conceding that anyone watching his program has to be mortally stupid, this
question touched new depth:

A woman said, “I buy a lot of
clothes and other items at Goodwill and other secondhand shops. Recently, my
mom told me that I need to pray over the items, bind familiar spirits, and
bless the items before I bring them into the house. Is my mother correct? Can
demons attach themselves to material items?”

Robertson’s answer was somehow even
more moronic:

Demonic Goodwill clothing

“Can demonic spirits attach
themselves to inanimate objects? The answer is yes. But I don't think every
sweater you get from Goodwill has demons in it. But in a sense, your mother's
just being super cautious so hey, it isn't gonna hurt you any to rebuke any spirits
that happen to have attached themselves to those clothes.”

Evil spirits attach to clothes?That sounds familiar, but not in Christian beliefs.In modern Wicca, which Christian
fundamentalists dismiss as witchcraft, all objects contain spirits.Ancient Druids thought the same thing.So did ancient Greeks and Romans.

Of course.In Robertson’s view, modern, conservative
Christians, so condescending and smug, apparently are nothing more than pagans
in sheep’s clothing.

Even granting that Robertson is 82
and may not be thinking as clearly, this is breathtakingly imbecilic.In fact, his view is so inane that it almost
reaches the depths of other things he has said over the years.

Here are a few gems:

1)"The Constitution of the
United States, for instance, is a marvelous document for self-government by the
Christian people. But the minute you turn the document into the hands of
non-Christian people and atheistic people they can use it to destroy the very
foundation of our society. And that's what's been happening."

Caused by gays?

2)"The feminist agenda is not
about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political
movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children,
practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians."

3)"If the widespread practice
of homosexuality will bring about the destruction of your nation… it'll bring
about earthquakes, tornadoes and possibly a meteor.”

He’s not fond of Islam either, calling the world’s
fastest-growing faith with more than 1 billion adherents a “religion of chaos” that is almost “demonic.”It’s not really a religion, he also said, but
“an economic and political system with a religious veneer.”

Maybe viewers turn on his show because they think
it’s a comedy.Or, maybe,
fundamentalists really are the imbeciles that Robertson takes them for. In that case, he's the perfect mirror.

Long-time
religious historian Bill Lazarus regularly writes about religion and religious
history.He also speaks at various
religious organizations throughout Florida.You can reach him at www.williamplazarus.net.He is the author of the famed Unauthorized
Biography of Nostradamus; The Last Testament of Simon Peter; The Gospel Truth: Where Did the Gospel
Writers Get Their Information; Noel:
The Lore and Tradition of Christmas Carols;and Dummies Guide to Comparative
Religion.His books are available on Amazon.com,
Kindle, bookstores and via various publishers.He can also be followed on Twitter.

You
can enroll in his on-line class, Comparative Religion for Dummies, at
http://www.udemy.com/comparative-religion-for-dummies/?promote=1

About Me

During his career, Bill has been a newspaper reporter, magazine writer/editor, advertising copywriter and writer/editor of NASCAR programs, among other jobs. He has won three international awards for stories and programs while working for International Speedway Corp. and was named 2000 Florida Feature Writer of the Year.
He has published four books to date and his writing has appeared in hundreds of local, regional, state and national publications.